Medicalisation costs $77 billion in US, study says
BMJ 2010; 340 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c2779 (Published 27 May 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c2779- Bob Roehr
- 1Washington DC
The direct cost of medicalisation—the categorising of events or behaviours as requiring medical treatment—was $77.1bn (£53.6bn, €62.3bn) in the United States in 2005, or 3.9% of total domestic healthcare expenditure, according to what is believed to be the first ever study quantifying those costs (Soc Sci Med 2010;70:1943-7).
Investigators tried to be “fairly rigorous” in what to include under medicalisation in the analysis, lead author Peter Conrad, a researcher at Brandeis University, near Boston, told the BMJ. They chose conditions for which there was broad agreement and where data were available.
They ended up with a dozen: anxiety disorders, …
Log in
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £173 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£38 / $45 / €42 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.